We're about:

Meet other local people who are interested in hiking for fitness! We also do some biking, snow shoeing, ice skating, roller skating and some x-country skiing and getting together for a bite to eat after a hike or just coffee.

Our group is a lot of fun. We are all friendly and always open to new ideas for meetups and new places too. We do have to consider the regions originally intended which are northern central MA and southern NH but will venture out now and then on camping trips or to the beach. We're about having fun and getting some exercise. Most of our group can do moderate hiking. Please be a kindred spirited person at least while on our hikes. Having respect for nature is a must.

We embrace diversity and welcome everyone regardless of gender, gender preferences, race, age(18 and up), marital status, etc. Anyone who is not cool with that, please do not join our group.We are peace loving people.

Please do not join this group if you are not going to participate in events but just want your profile seen or are just using this site as a dating tool. There are singles only sites on Meetup for that.

The difficulty of our hikes is normally set to allow the maximum amount of participation for the maximum amount of members. A moderate pace of approximately 2MPH should be expected on most hikes. When hikes are planned that are more difficult, such as Mt Monadnock, the description of the meet-up will include this fact. Our goal is to enjoy the outdoors while meeting people interested in the same - not to conquer the mountains. Our hikes are also paced to keep everyone in the group more or less together through the entire hike.

Weather is obviously a major factor in any of our hikes. We try not to cancel meet-ups for light rain - we are outdoors after all. However, in the case of forecasted heavy rain and/or lightning, we'll try to cancel those meet-ups about 24 hours ahead of time. I use weather.com radar maps to make this determination and send an email prior to the event. The best advice is to check your email the morning of a meet-up for any cancellations.

Anyone soliciting products or services through this group, aside from Alan of Dance2Swing who has the organizer's permission as these swing dances and lessons are great activities for our members, will be removed from the group immediately. To discourage this kind of behavior, I ask that group members do not buy any products or services from anyone trying to sell them through this group or this website. That is NOT what this Meet-up group is intended for.

Please read postings before you RSVP. There is no need to RSVP "No" unless you are changing an RSVP from a "yes". This just sends more unnecessary email to the organizer's in-boxes.

By RSVPing "yes", Northern-central-MA-Walking-Group members and their guests attending any of our meet-up events agree to release, hold harmless, and indemnify the organizer(s) and all members of this group from any and all claims for property damage, injury, and/or death, including those caused by negligence and or other reasons. Super important....You also agree to assume all risk associated with each meetup you attend and agree to know and follow the Hiker Responsibility Code described at www.hikesafe.com

Members are currently welcome to post events on the site and make comments as well. Please use some charisma and care in your comments and only post information if you know it is accurate and not harmful to anyone in any way(non-slanderous).

If you post an event, please pay attention to our codes and policies as a group. Meetup settings don't allow members to have editing ability unless they are a host for an event so please contact an organizer to make you an event host. It's our intent to have a great time yet be responsible as well. Also organizers and hosts of events should be reliable and do their best to keep our group members safe. If you must cancel an event, please do so at least two hours before the scheduled time so folks traveling long distance are not already en-route.

Please use the Golden Rule when offering to carpool. If you know someone is depending on you for a ride and you decide not to attend an event, a courtesy notice to your riders is important allowing them enough time to make other arrangements.

== Legal Stuff ===

By clicking on "Yes" for any event you agree, warrant, and covenant as follows:

In consideration for accepting this entry, I, the registrant, intending to be legally bound, hereby, for myself, my heirs, my executors and administrators, do waive and release any and all rights for damages I may have against any parties or persons connected with the Northern-central-MA-Walking-Group for and related to any event which I attend. I attest and verify that I (and any guest(s) I bring are physically fit to participate in any portion of each event I attend. I grant Northern-central-MA-Walking-Group permission to use any photographs, film or videotapes of all events for any purpose.